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13 players left us. 5 of them I terminated before their contracts ran out, just to be able to offer some of my better players new ones.

7 players came in. (There's plenty time left on the transfer window, but my wage budget is spent, so unless someone comes in with an offer for anyone I'm done.)

Kristijan Lukacic (DLC) - My new left back. He had a good season for AKE Vorarlberg in Austria last year and if he settles in I think he'll do very well.

Luca D'Dandrea (DRC) - And a right back. Released by Roma where he didn't get a single match for 3 seasons.

Marcelo Tche (DR) - He can also play left back (competent), so he'll probably cover on both sides.

Tiago Maia (GK) - 2nd goalkeeper. Although there's very little between the two I have so the spot is kind of up for grabs.

Thiaguinho (MC) - Young Brazilian from Gremios academy. Already 2nd best midfielder in the squad.

Robert Pich (SC) - He's been 3 years in Portugal already so he should settle in fast. My fans for some reason were amazed that I managed to capture his signature.

Liban Abdi (SC) - He's from Somalia. I think that's a first for me. He did however spend his last two seasons playing for Arouca, who are in the same division as us. So hopefully he'll settle right in.

We have a much smaller squad this season, but I think more quality in depth and in certain positions, full backs in particular. Hopefully we can avoid any major injury crisis though.

Atm our biggest star Lapa is out for 3 months with a hip problem. He has to see a specialist and will miss at least 5-6 of the first league matches. I really hope one of the new boys can step up or the promotion hunt may well be over before it begins.

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An up and down season that saw many winning streaks, losing streaks and streaks where we simply couldn't find the back of the net no matter what we tried. With three games remaining we found ourselves sitting just outside the playoffs with games against the three sides immediately above us. A 5-1 hammering of Albion Rovers was followed up with a 2-0 win against Montrose, leaving us requiring just a point against Alloa Athletic on the final day of the season to clinch the last playoff place. This was achieved with a late 1-1 draw.

The playoffs saw us meet the 9th placed side from the Second Division in Elgin City. A 1-1 draw at home was followed by a 3-2 win away after we had trailed 2-1 with fifteen minutes remaining. The 4-3 aggregate win saw us through to meet Albion Rovers in the final. In the first leg John Boyle went crazy, slamming home four goals in the opening 34 minutes as we ran out 6-2 winners. Boyle continued on his merry way in the second leg, scoring another two goals including a late equaliser as we secured a 3-3 draw. The 9-5 aggregate scoreline saw promotion attained, ending a three season stint in the basement of the Scottish Football League. This led to me being voted the Third Division Manager of the Year.

Scottish Cup

Entering in the Second Round, we defeated Forres Mechanics 3-0 before being eliminated in the following round by First Division Ross County.

League Cup

Our campaign in this competition ended almost before it had started with a crushing 5-0 defeat at the hands of recently relegated Dunfermline Athletic.

Challenge Cup

Despite going down to ten men just before half time, a late goal saw us secure a surprise 1-0 win against Second Division Airdrie United in the First Round. The Second Round saw us drawn against First Division side Livingston and despite holding them in the first half, they broke through in the second for a 3-0 victory.

Key Players

Ian Watt - signed on a free from Alloa. 21 goals and 13 assists in 38 league games.

John Boyle - signed on a free from Airdrie. Was inconsistent for much of the season but turned it on when it mattered most, with 6 goals over the two legs of the Playoff Final. 15 goals and 6 assists overall.

Declan Gallagher - our rock in defence. Scored five goals, all from corners, and was Man of the Match on eight occasions.

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siLKEAPE - Impressive season. Unlucky in the playoffs after such a good run of wins. Next season for sure!

(Btw - Being Norwegian myself I got what you meant about NOK to GBP, but in case anyone gets confused (I know I often do when there's talk of currency) 1 NOK = 0,11 GBP atm. So basically, take away a zero.)

*RyMaX - Congrats on the promotion, well done! Sounds like a cracking end to the season. Good luck at the next level!

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So my best striker is gone for 3 months. He finally comes back, and now my left back damages his achilles tendon and will be out for 3 months. Meanwhile my goalkeeper has broken his finger and is still out for a month. Having only 2 GKs this could be fun. And just to make it complete one of my defensive midfielders is still out for 2 months, seeing a specialist with a hip injury.

Not out of the race by any means, but with 3 major injuries in about a week I've had enough for tonight. Going to bed...

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Oh I feel you Ohanzee - Since my mid-season update 9 injuries, 6 suspensions, my top keeper was out for 3 games with food poisoning, my back-up is terrible, both my central defenders were injured, and both strikers, at one point I was missing 2 strikers, 2 central defenders, 2 centre mids (1 suspended) and my keeper, no one useful left through the middle. I have not won a game in 9 since then...that makes 1 win in the last 13 games...I don't even really know what went wrong, but we got into a bad morale spin and now my team really is out of the race (The game I am currently in makes 5 straight losses) and we drop to 7th, we also lost 8-0 to the 4th placed team in this run...

I am sooo frustrated and struggling to get morale back...only reason I haven't been sacked on this run is because I was in first before it hit.

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So my best striker is gone for 3 months. He finally comes back, and now my left back damages his achilles tendon and will be out for 3 months. Meanwhile my goalkeeper has broken his finger and is still out for a month. Having only 2 GKs this could be fun. And just to make it complete one of my defensive midfielders is still out for 2 months, seeing a specialist with a hip injury.

Not out of the race by any means, but with 3 major injuries in about a week I've had enough for tonight. Going to bed...

I had a spell like that last year. I can tell you perseverance (and a couple of extra cover players) should be the only solution you'll need.

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Well I finally broke my spell, I held a team meeting got them fired up, then motivated them for the next game, results 6:3 win (Highest scoring game in league history), followed by a 5:3 win a few days later.

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1) Does ticking top clubs thing increase the number of newgens in the future? Because a single nation means a very small number of leagues, therefore lame players. And if it's a lower class league, for example I'll be doing Turkey, it would mean playing with subpar players in the top division. I'd welcome an insight about the newgen issue with this challenge

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1) Does ticking top clubs thing increase the number of newgens in the future? Because a single nation means a very small number of leagues, therefore lame players. And if it's a lower class league, for example I'll be doing Turkey, it would mean playing with subpar players in the top division. I'd welcome an insight about the newgen issue with this challenge

2) Why didn't you add Greece to the challenge? :/

1) It does improve the balance greatly having that ticked. I wouldn't say it necessarily produces more top-class players, but it definitely ensures there are plenty of players with enough potential to become great. As for the players being sub-par, that is down to reputations, mostly. I found the there were always plenty of players who were much better than what I had in my Portugal game that refused to join me due to not being a large enough club, and I can't imagine things would be different in Turkey.

2) Greece isn't included in BEN because it is covered by Gundo's European Adventure. The cut off for which leagues would be in which version was decided last year, and has persisted over to this season as well.

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LLR - I know what you mean. I still feel like morale is at least a bit to important in this game and should be tuned down somewhat.

Long Islander - Looks like a tough season. Hope you can push up the table next season and maybe into the playoffs. Good luck!

Biscotti - Cheers, but I can't afford any more players. Already slightly above my £6.7k weekly wage budget and can only offer £85 a week now to key players. With most half-decent players expecting £300-600 a week it's hard to have a big squad, at least with some quality in it. I find it's a lot harder to go above your wage budget as well this version. The board caps me off way faster than before.

danger_mouse - I'm horrible at those to. Only tried twice so far though. Once in the demo, as Manchester United. At the start of that season I said I thought we were good enough to win the league and 90% of the squad went from superb to good or below in morale. Nani went from superb to abysmal and never recovered in the half season I played. The 2nd time was in this save, and I don't wanna talk about it.

First game was good, but the 2nd was a disaster, losing 4-1 to a side who i'd already beat in the league twice this season. My top scorer was out for the game too though, which i believe made a bit of a difference. Disappointing as i thought i could go all the way.

Brought in less people this season and again all free. Most of them did pretty well other than Sertac Baydar who ended up injured a lot of the time. Hakan Cevik was easily the best of the few player i did get, and he was Division 2 signing of the season. Will be looking to get in some more for the next season.

Overall

Happy to reach the play-offs but losing 4-1 was really disappointing, made the season seem like a waste of time to me. I really need to push for 1st place, as it seems to be the only way i'll be going up at the minute. Finances are getting worse and i'm pretty sure i'll be in the red by around £1m at the end of next season.

Long story short, for those that don't wanna read the rest : The season was the exact opposite of last season, but with the same ending. We were horrible for the first 2/3s and excellent for the last 1/3, but lost promotion on the final day.

It started a bit like last season with lots of draws and very few wins. The difference being that we didn't score goals, not being helped by Lapas absence. Well, we did score, but in 8 of the 10 first league matches we scored 0 or 1 goal. Our defense however was pretty good, and by the time Lapa came back we were mid-table, but only 6 points behind the leaders. He didn't really find his form from last season either though, as you can see in the squad part further down.

The first 20 or so games of this season I don't think we played a single match with what I would call my first choice 11 because of constant injuries. It showed, as we had a 8-7-6 win-draw-loss record after 21 games. That still left us 7th in the table and only 7 points behind 2nd place though. We finally found some form in the last 9 matches, winning 7 in a row before drawing at home to P. Ferreira in the 2nd to last game of the season. This left us 2 points behind Feirense, who we happened to be playing on the final day away from home.

Just like last season we needed a win to get promotion. Injuries had began piling up again though, with Luca D'Andrea, Raoul Esseboom, and Thiaguinho all missing from my preferred 1st eleven. When Kristijan Lukacic decided to leave to play a U21 match for his country instead of helping us out as well, we were down to 1 first choice player in the back 4. We still managed to give Feirense a good fight, and frankly I thought we deserved to win. But our good spell was over and we lost 2-1. Another final day nightmare.

Looking back at the season I think two things went wrong.

1. To many injuries to key players. Long term injuries. I don't think I've ever had to send 3 key players to a specialist before Christmas before.

2. I changed my pitch size to minimum before this season (from standard before), and I think that killed my strikers. Have a look at our home record versus our away record if you like, I think it speaks for itself. My plan was to concede less, which didn't happen (1 more conceded than last season at home). The tactic I use rely a lot on strikers (and AMC at times) being played through and either scoring or squaring it to score most of our goals. With such a short pitch that seemed to happen a lot less. Considering it didn't help our defense one bit either I'll be going back to standard next season, and hopefully that'll help my quick strikers, Lapa in particular.

In some ways this season was better than the last as we got 3 points more though. If this season was last season instead we'd be promoted, if that makes sense at all.

No one really blew my mind this season, but Ralf Christ was probably our most important player. Lukacic, D'Andrea and Thiaguinho had a good first season. I also like that Ralf Christ has gone from 8 acceleration to 11 since I signed him 2 seasons ago. Not sure if it's the individual focus on quickness or his regular training schedule that's done it, but I like it. Hopefully with a slightly longer pitch at home next season him and Lapa can really shine. If I can manage to keep them that is.

The Club

Financially we're doing worse every year. £700k in red now. I cut our staff wages with £100k+ but that didn't do much apparently. Average attendance went down around 600 to 2,438 this season, so I guess that's part of it. If my board don't up the wage budget on the league reset I'm gonna lose Stefan Ilsanker as his contract is running out and I can only offer him £85 of the £500+ he's gonna expect atm. That's the only key player we'll lose though, but everyone but 2 players have just one year left on their contract, so I have some decisions to make. Sell or let them run out basically, unless my board magically raise the budget by a few £k.

From the top division Estoril is coming back down and are taking Gil Vicente with them. Their 3 best payed players combined earn more than our entire wage budget, so I would expect them to do well unless they lose a lot of players in the summer. Also, in case anyone is wondering, in the top division FC Porto and SL Benfica have won the league 2 times each in the last 4 seasons. No one has managed to get into the top 3 but the big 3 so far.

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DC - Kamil Bolel - I think defence is one of the key problems with my team, so hopefully this guy can make a bit of a difference

DR - Zafer Aydogdu - Another defender as DR seems to be one of the weakest spots in my team

ML - Erdinc Karakas - Despite having two fairly good left sided midfielders, it was another place i felt needed to be a bit better, got this guy on loan

ST - Furkan Aydin - And finally the striker, hopefully he can work well with Ederniz. This guy though, seems to think he is the best player at the club now and he probably is, just hope it doesn't affect the other players. He is a former Fenerbahce player.

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danger_mouse - I'm horrible at those to. Only tried twice so far though. Once in the demo, as Manchester United. At the start of that season I said I thought we were good enough to win the league and 90% of the squad went from superb to good or below in morale. Nani went from superb to abysmal and never recovered in the half season I played. The 2nd time was in this save, and I don't wanna talk about it.

Hahaha i think i need some advice on how to do team meetings, as it could turn a season around.

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Mafino - I read that already before I started, sad story, but nothing at all to do with the football club. Didn't really see any need to bring it up in here, and not really sure what you hope to accomplish by doing it either.

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Mafino - I read that already before I started, sad story, but nothing at all to do with the football club. Didn't really see any need to bring it up in here, and not really sure what you hope to accomplish by doing it either.

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Well as previously mentioned the league form before the Winter Break went from very poor to very good in a short amount of time and it meant that with less than half the season to go after the break we were sat at a comfortable position 5 points above relegation. The season after the break started off with a mixture of results but more positive than negative, however, we decided that for the run in to the end of the season we would go on a horrendous losing streak. Of the last 10 games we lost 7, 5 of which were in a row and in the last 6 games, this was mainly due to the lack of putting the ball in the back of the net. This run meant that on the last day of the season we were only 3 points away from the last relegation spot and we were playing the team one place below us and on the same points as us. Of course with such a run at our backs I assumed the worst until I looked and saw that the only team that could catch us out of relegation were playing top of the league and already promoted Krylja Sovetov. We went 1-0 up early on with a striker getting his first of the season before being pegged back and for the rest of the game being on the back foot, however, as the board went up for added time a corner was whipped in and we made it 2-1 to end the league on a high note.

One of the main problems I think I may face as manager is that money is a major issue, I am constantly just over the wage budget but despite this we have lost over £1M almost all from wages. My main GK retired from professional football but doesn't mind playing semi-pro still, however, I can't keep him because I can't offer him semi-pro terms, the sub GK also left because I didn't play him as well as about 10 others, although this didn't bring my budget down enough so I will still have to wait until the transfer window in order to get rid of someone just to sign a GK.

Welkinho - Was the top goalscorer and only player to reach double figures, also was lead assist with 3 more than the next player and had the most MoM awards, with 5 more than his nearest rival. Almost certainly the best player in the team and I am thankful that I have at least one striker that score regularly.

Igor Lutovinov - Joint second top goalscorer from DC which doesn't say a lot about my strikers when he only managed 6 goals, solid defender throughout.

It bodes well that both these players are young and might have a few more years in them for me before moving on or hopefully I will be able to take them where they will ultimately want to go.

The players that came in the January Transfer Window:

Rumen Kostov - Bulgarian U19, he only played a small part in the latter part of the season because he was first away as he was struggling to adapt and when he came back the foreign player rule dicated when I could give him time.

Tomas Cizek - Vetern winger who managed 4 assists in 14 games but tended to drift out of games easily.

Pavel Mogilevskiy - A good centre back that got 2 on his debut then got injured, played a few games after his injury but didn't shine.

Tchocomar Sidibe - Very promising youngster, brought in on a trial and was immediately told that he was our best centre mid, played the first few games he was with the club then requested a leave of absence because he was struggling to adapt.

The major problem with the team is the strikers, the record they have is utter rubbish. Collectively they have 84 starts, 28 sub appearances and only 22 goals, considering 11 of those goals came from one player and another got 6 it really makes a mockery of the 7 strikers I have.

Cup

I got knocked out in the first game I played which occured before I had even played a pres-season friendly, not sure I would have wanted a run anyway because of the ridiculous scheduling that goes on. Before the Winter Break a game is played every Saturday and Wednesday without fail so where they fit them in I couldn't begin to imagine.

Other

The youth candidates did not look good but I signed a few in positions that may be useful in the future for cover. The club is massively in debt. The club has 1,463 season ticket holders and an average attendance of 2,899 which is promising as the capacity is only 5000.

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So going into the 2 weeks off for the Xmas break we've played the four big teams in the league - Barcelona B, Real Sociedad B (thought they were racing Santander B), Osasuna B and Bilbao Athletic. Beat both Osasuna and Bilbao 2-1 and 2-0 respectively, got a 2-2 draw away at Barcelona B when we should have won and lost 1-0 to Real Sociedad B.

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Finances - Another season of losing money. I'm not entirely surprised. I never make any money at this time. Thankfully the board are quite nice in occasionally pumping some cash in to help with the running costs.

Transfers - Not helped this season by my board deciding to be pretty tight (I realise I've said different above, but seriously! £35 p/w!). But still, we put together a decent squad.

League

Fascinating season. We started off mediocrely. Heading into December we were sitting in mid-table. Looking unlikely to get relegated with some solid, unspectacular form. However, I don't know what changed then. I lost to Farense on December 1st. It would be our last. Between then and the end of the season we would win 18 and draw 6 in an unbeaten run of 24 games. Meaning we are yet to lost in 2014. This form saw us rise steadily up the table, eventually hitting top spot, eventually tying up the league win with one game to spare, a game we won 6-1! That saw us through to the play offs where we would face the winners of the Central and North sections. The first game saw us draw, we won the final three games to see us top this mini-league and head into the Second League. First promotion = DONE!

Squad

Joao Nuno - A pretty decent season for a man earning £35 p/w. First choice all season, and actually played pretty well.

Bruno - First choice left back. Not sure he's got what it takes to make it at a higher level. But we'll see what I've got to play with.

Ramon - I signed a Brazilian but soon found myself with a Maltese international. Started the season behind Daniel in the pecking order, but pushed past him and never looked back, I'm hopeful he might be good enough for the league above.

Alan - Tower of strength at the back. His ability in the air was useful at set pieces, both defensive and attacking. He's one who, if the gap isn't too big, might be capable of performing in the league above.

Daniel - Still see him as a decent player, but unfortunately he fell behind his rivals. Useful to have around.

Antonio Marcos - Main man at right back and the team's captain, he played well on the whole. Unsure of his future I'm afraid.

Januario - Left winger who spent a chunk of the season on the right to cover for an injured Catarino.

Ricardo Catarino - He's not the most gifted player and misses some seemingly easy chances, if he could finish properly he'd have hit 15 goals this season. Still, he played well and did his job when needed.

Diego - Back up for the first half of the season, lost out on that role to Lima after he arrived in January.

Lima - Brought in on loan, I think he's a talented player, if possible I'd look to get him back next season.

Robson - Excellent player in the middle of the park. Missed the last five weeks of the regular season, but returned in time for the playoffs. I'd like to think there's a role for him next season.

Oluwatosin Michael - Cheap back up to Robson. Did a decent enough job when needed. Saw us through the last few weeks to get us into the playoffs.

Lucas - Leading scorer. Hit a fantastic run of form mid-season that galvanised our push to the top of the league. I have a feeling he can cut it in the league above.

Pedro Costa - Scored crucial goals. A pity he's another with no pace, but he will be here next season barring budget constraints.

Andre Goncalo - Turned up for the last few games when Lucas was injured and saw us through to the play offs. Well done Andre...

Cup

We won two games in the cup, reaching the third round. The board were pleased.

Story So Far...

Season League Position Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012/13 Second Division - South 12th Avoided Relegation (just)
2013/14 Second Division - South 1st Promoted!

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Great to see Carsten Kammlott still here who I even took on as a sub in the CL final on the last game. He's also scored a lot in pre-season. Made a lot of signings and still got 20k left in my wage budget. Might save it for next season.

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Thanks Amethyst, TBH i'm quite astonished how well I've had the team playing this season.

Almondo - Looking good Almondo! Can those "B" teams be promoted or would you still go up if you finished behind them? Best not to take any chances, go for the title!

All four of those teams can go up to the Liga Adelante so I'm going for the title. The thing is looking at the League and so on even winning the title doesn't mean automatic promotion. I think we have to play a pair of playoff games between the winners of the four leagues at this level.

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Charlesbeams - Awesome away win! This is the season, I can feel it! Öztürk looks very promising. *edit* D'oh, didn't see your last post before posting, I'm confident you can turn it around though.

I was thinking the same after my first 2 games, but it's not going well now, can hardly score at all. Will be great when Ozturk arrives, but he'll probably end up being a flop too. There are currently pitch problems too which could be affecting results, but no way i can change them as we have no money

This cup match coming up will hopefully raise morale a bit, as well as the team meeting i just had which went well. (won 5-2, but it went to extra time, it all changed when my young striker made his return from injury, hopefully he can change things in the league too)

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If you grow up and Casa Pia is in the news every day then you can't really ignore it. Just stating opinion. Is that not what forums are for?

Honestly, no I don't think this particular forum is for that kind of discussion or opinion. But I guess I'll just have to find a new club then. Can't really see myself enjoying this save at all now. So job well done!

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Honestly, no I don't think this particular forum is for that kind of discussion or opinion. But I guess I'll just have to find a new club then. Can't really see myself enjoying this save at all now. So job well done!

I completely agree Ohanzee, and this has slightly annoyed me. I hope you find a new club and have success there, and get the enjoyment back.